Post by SheWolf on Jan 5, 2007 22:23:33 GMT 1
From York Press
DALE Meeks did not agree with the Emmerdale bosses that his time as long-suffering Simon Meredith had run its natural course, but he took his soap exit it on the chin, and quickly found a new stage to strut his hour.
"I already had a job lined up as I was leaving Emmerdale last summer, so I had two weeks off and then I was into the tour of Chicago, which was perfect, " says the South Shields actor, who will be playing Cellophane in York from Tuesday, when the tour reopens at the Grand Opera House.
"You think, 'Bloody hell, what will happen if you leave a soap?'.
Everyone thinks, 'Is there life after Emmerdale?', and it wasn't my decision to leave. It was the producer's decision, as Nicola Wheeler, who played my girlfriend in the show, decided she wanted to leave.
I staggered on like a square peg in a round hole for three months, but they eventually said my story had come to an end."
Dale took the chance to resume a musical career that had taken him to London in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game.
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As chance would have it, his departure from the Yorkshire Television soap was written by none other than his brother, scriptwriter Philip Meeks.
"That felt a bit strange, though it was nice because he managed to soup it up a little bit for me. I felt it was in safe hands, and I think a lot of care went into the writing? but then, I know where he lives, " says Dale.
Until this week, he has not had a break since joining up with the Chicago touring company in London and taking to the road in Birmingham in September. When he did take time out from Kander and Ebb's satirical kiss-and-tell musical, it was to dive straight into a fortnight's rehearsals for a threeweek run of Peter Pan in Grimsby.
"I've been playing Smee, the comic's role - he's like Buttons but without the romantic interest - and I'm physically shattered, " says Dale, who finished his panto run on New Year's Eve. "We ended with an afternoon show and everyone got in their cars and headed off home for the night as quickly as possible."
Why is he exhausted? "I had to this trampoline act at the end of the show, and I hadn't done any gymnastics since junior school, so I was thinking, 'I can't do this'. But I got some training from Andy, from The Nitwits, and off I went, " he says.
"I told all my mates, 'Come early, because I really do think I'll be removed from the routine after injuring myself'."
He was wrong! Dale survived unscathed throughout the run, but not everyone was so lucky. "Two of the professionals had to pull out, and one had a cracked sternum. It was that dangerous."
Now Dale is freshening up for his return to Chicago. "No one has passed me on any details yet, so it looks like I'll be straight back into the show in York, after five or six weeks away? but it wasn't five or six weeks' rest. It was five or six very intense weeks, and now I need a year's rest."
He is only joking. He cannot wait to perform Mr Cellophane once more.
"Whereas Smee in Grimsby was a very physical role with lots of rolling around, Cellophane is more of a thinking role, and at first I was trying to put too much into him, when in fact he's a bit of a dull person and you can't make him interesting. I was always being told to pull it back in rehearsal."
The Chicago tour will run until September, but Dale has a contract that will allow him to leave if a major television role comes his way. Is a return to Emmerdale on the cards?
"As far as I know, my character still owns his house in the village, because he definitely didn't sell it? and Nicola Wheeler has always said she'd like to come back. I'd love to come back. I'd go back in a flash, " he says.
"I was in the show for close on three years and it changed my life in every way: financially and in giving me a higher profile. It got me shows like Chicago and a headline role in panto, and now there are cardboard cut-outs of me as Cellophane outside theatres saying 'Dale Meeks returns'."
Chicago, Grand Opera House, York, from January 9 to 20; performances at 7.30pm, Monday to Thursday; 2.30pm, Wednesday matinees; 5pm and 8.30pm, Friday; 5pm and 8pm, Saturdays.
Box office: 0870 400 0709.
DALE Meeks did not agree with the Emmerdale bosses that his time as long-suffering Simon Meredith had run its natural course, but he took his soap exit it on the chin, and quickly found a new stage to strut his hour.
"I already had a job lined up as I was leaving Emmerdale last summer, so I had two weeks off and then I was into the tour of Chicago, which was perfect, " says the South Shields actor, who will be playing Cellophane in York from Tuesday, when the tour reopens at the Grand Opera House.
"You think, 'Bloody hell, what will happen if you leave a soap?'.
Everyone thinks, 'Is there life after Emmerdale?', and it wasn't my decision to leave. It was the producer's decision, as Nicola Wheeler, who played my girlfriend in the show, decided she wanted to leave.
I staggered on like a square peg in a round hole for three months, but they eventually said my story had come to an end."
Dale took the chance to resume a musical career that had taken him to London in the original cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Beautiful Game.
Advertisement continued...
As chance would have it, his departure from the Yorkshire Television soap was written by none other than his brother, scriptwriter Philip Meeks.
"That felt a bit strange, though it was nice because he managed to soup it up a little bit for me. I felt it was in safe hands, and I think a lot of care went into the writing? but then, I know where he lives, " says Dale.
Until this week, he has not had a break since joining up with the Chicago touring company in London and taking to the road in Birmingham in September. When he did take time out from Kander and Ebb's satirical kiss-and-tell musical, it was to dive straight into a fortnight's rehearsals for a threeweek run of Peter Pan in Grimsby.
"I've been playing Smee, the comic's role - he's like Buttons but without the romantic interest - and I'm physically shattered, " says Dale, who finished his panto run on New Year's Eve. "We ended with an afternoon show and everyone got in their cars and headed off home for the night as quickly as possible."
Why is he exhausted? "I had to this trampoline act at the end of the show, and I hadn't done any gymnastics since junior school, so I was thinking, 'I can't do this'. But I got some training from Andy, from The Nitwits, and off I went, " he says.
"I told all my mates, 'Come early, because I really do think I'll be removed from the routine after injuring myself'."
He was wrong! Dale survived unscathed throughout the run, but not everyone was so lucky. "Two of the professionals had to pull out, and one had a cracked sternum. It was that dangerous."
Now Dale is freshening up for his return to Chicago. "No one has passed me on any details yet, so it looks like I'll be straight back into the show in York, after five or six weeks away? but it wasn't five or six weeks' rest. It was five or six very intense weeks, and now I need a year's rest."
He is only joking. He cannot wait to perform Mr Cellophane once more.
"Whereas Smee in Grimsby was a very physical role with lots of rolling around, Cellophane is more of a thinking role, and at first I was trying to put too much into him, when in fact he's a bit of a dull person and you can't make him interesting. I was always being told to pull it back in rehearsal."
The Chicago tour will run until September, but Dale has a contract that will allow him to leave if a major television role comes his way. Is a return to Emmerdale on the cards?
"As far as I know, my character still owns his house in the village, because he definitely didn't sell it? and Nicola Wheeler has always said she'd like to come back. I'd love to come back. I'd go back in a flash, " he says.
"I was in the show for close on three years and it changed my life in every way: financially and in giving me a higher profile. It got me shows like Chicago and a headline role in panto, and now there are cardboard cut-outs of me as Cellophane outside theatres saying 'Dale Meeks returns'."
Chicago, Grand Opera House, York, from January 9 to 20; performances at 7.30pm, Monday to Thursday; 2.30pm, Wednesday matinees; 5pm and 8.30pm, Friday; 5pm and 8pm, Saturdays.
Box office: 0870 400 0709.